【作者】 孙晓玲；

【导师】 李晓文；

【作者基本信息】 华东师范大学 ， 发展与教育心理学， 2008， 博士

【摘要】 良好的自我调节能力有助于个体在种种生活领域中取得成功,但现实生活中,人们的自我调节能力仍然很不理想,自我调节失败仍然是个体和社会存在的主要问题之一。在对自我调节相关研究进行回顾后,我们发现,要实现成功的自我调节,个体必须重视高层次的目标和愿望,并最终放弃低层次的冲动和欲望,采取与高层次目标一致的行为。为了对上述现象进行整合并探讨自我调节的深层心理机制,本研究将解释水平理论整合到自我概念的研究中。解释水平理论是在对时间折扣现象进行探讨的基础上发展起来的。该理论认为,事件的时间距离影响着事件被解释的方式。更远期的事件一般被表征为更抽象的、去背景化的信息,而近期未来的事件倾向于产生相对具体的、情境特定性的解释。借鉴该理论,本研究提出,人们对自我的表征也会随着时间距离的变化而出现解释水平的不同。相对于近期自我表征,当启动人们对远期自我的知觉时,个体对自我的表征会更加核心,与个人认同的关联性更大。由时间距离所引发的自我表征的变化,会引发个体不同的自我评价动机。对远期的可能自我的描绘和思考会促使个体更加关注可能自我和当前自我的差异,从而引发自我提升动机,以促进个体对当前不足的改进。而对近期的当前自我进行思考时,个体工作自我概念中会同时激活当前自我和当下自我目标,尤其在消极的自我反馈信息出现的情况下,两者比较产生的差异会引发个体为了维护积极的自我概念而形成自我增强动机。在此基础上,本研究进一步提出,价值偏好是时间距离与自我评价动机的中介因素。由于远期的时间距离促进个体对核心自我表征的关注,个体更加关注理想、真实的自我表达,因而更加关注理想主义价值;近期的时间距离则会引发个体对次要的自我信息的关注,与自我定义相关不大,在这种情况下,个体更加偏好实用主义价值。由自我透视所引发的价值偏好以及自我动机的出现对个体的自我调节具有重要意义:远期的自我透视促使个体表现出更强的行为参与意图、价值一致性行为以及抵制诱惑的能力,因而能提高自我调节的有效性。这一规律对个体的决策、偏好以及自我调节具有重要意义。七个研究分别从不同角度以不同方式对上述假定进行了检验。研究一探索了自我透视和自我动机之间的关系。研究一A首先要求个体完成一个假定的创造力测验(成熟测验或新测验)以启动个体的自我知觉,然后给予被试虚假的关于测验结果的消极反馈,在此基础上探测个体自我动机。研究结果表明,当启动了个体对远期创造力的知觉时,无论测验是否成熟,个体对与自我提升动机相关的词语的反应时变长;而当启动了个体对当前创造力的知觉时,如果告诉被试测验成熟,则个体对与自我增强动机相关词语的反应时变长。但是当测验为新测验时,这种关系并不明显。其它相关调查也基本证实了上述关系。这一结果表明,当启动了个体的可能自我知觉时,个体似乎更加重视能够促进其自我发展的信息,因此他们乐意接受各种反馈。而当前自我知觉条件下,当有机会准确了解与个人有关的信息时,个体倾向于选择逃避反馈以保护自尊不受伤害。研究一B以明星学生的新闻分别启动了来自相同背景的大一和大四学生的自我知觉,借以检验新闻对这些学生自我和他人评价带来的影响。研究结果显示,大一学生对明星学生做出了较高的评价,而对自己做出了较低的评价;而大四学生则对明星学生做出了较低评价,而对自己做出了较高的评价。也就是说,一年级的学生更可能将明星学生当作未来的可能自我,因而他们更加正视自己的不足及与明星学生的差距,从而表现出自我提升动机;四年级学生更多看到了明星学生给自己带来的威胁。为了保护其自尊,他们将明星学生的成就看成对自己的威胁。为了降低这种威胁感,他们倾向于过高评价自己而对明星学生贬抑有加,从而表现出自我增强动机。研究二至研究六对自我透视引发不同自我动机的深层机制进行了探讨。研究二集中于探讨自我透视和价值偏好之间的关系。研究二A以自我评价的方法激活了个体对当前自我以及5年后可能自我的知觉,并检验了这些自我知觉激活价值偏好的影响。结果显示,当前自我条件下,个体更加偏好反映了实用主义价值的课程;可能自我条件下,结果则相反。研究二B将时间距离扩展为3种,要求被试分别描述了对自我及好朋友在当前、1个月后以及5年后样子的知觉,并检验了这些启动的自我/他人知觉对价值偏好的影响情况。结果显示,在当前自我条件下,个体更加偏好实用主义价值;相对于1个月后的可能自我,当启动了5年后的可能自我后,个体更加重视理想主义价值,个体对当前时刻的自我知觉与对1个月后的可能自我的知觉在价值偏好上的差异并不显著。这一结果意味着,只有当时间距离达到一定程度后,对自我的时间透视才会使个体的价值偏好出现分离。同时,当启动了个体对他人不同时间距离的知觉时,个体的价值偏好并未表现出相似的规律。这一结果表明,自我透视对价值偏好的影响是一种自我特异性现象。研究三A要求个体分别从总体领域的角度描述当前自我和1周/1年后的可能自我,并检验了这一同时激活对个体价值偏好的影响。结果显示,较大的自我差异引起了个体对理想主义价值占主导的课程的偏好。研究三B从具体的人际自我领域的角度对上述关系进行了检验。在这一研究中,对自我差异的激活包括四种情况,第一种情况,要求被试从乐观、外向以及善交际的角度对自己期望的可能自我进行描述,并评价这一描述与自己实际情况的差异程度;第二种情况下,要求被试从悲观、内向、不善交际的角度对自己害怕的可能自我进行描述,同样评价这一描述与自己实际情况的差异程度;第三种情况下,要求被试从乐观/悲观、内向/外向、善于交际/不善交际这三个角度对自己当前的人际自我进行描述,并要求被试描述一下,当好朋友认为他/她并不是这样的人时,他/她会怎么看?第四种情况,直接要求被试对自己的人际自我进行描述,而不设定如第三种情况的当前任务,即没有自我相关信息。研究结果显示,当启动了期望的可能自我时,个体表现出对理想主义价值的更大偏好;但是,当启动了害怕的可能自我时,个体并未表现出如期的对理想主义价值的偏好。在当前自我条件下,当以自我相关信息启动了个体的当前自我和当下目标的差异时,个体对价值的偏好与未启动当下目标时相比,两者差异不大。这可能是因为在单独启动当前自我条件下,个体的当下目标也自动启动了的缘故。研究三C从同一自我侧面的角度探讨了自我差异对价值偏好的影响,也获得了相似的结果。总之,研究三的结果表明,当启动个体期望的可能自我差异时,个体更加偏好理想主义价值,但这一规律并不适用于害怕可能自我情况下;当启动了当前自我差异或启动了当前自我时,个体更加偏好实用主义价值。研究四对自我差异的自动激活现象进行了探索。研究四A要求被试首先描述可能自我或当前自我,并同时罗列头脑中同时出现的想法,通过自我报告法检验了可能自我/当前自我启动后,当前自我/当下自我目标是否也会自动受到激活。结果显示,当启动个体的可能自我时,个体的工作自我概念中会同时启动相应的当前自我,形成一定的差异,从而促使个体的价值取向发生改变。当单独启动个体的当前自我时,自我当下目标也会在一定程度上受到启动,从而使两者产生差异对价值偏好产生影响。不过,可能受当前研究方法所限,自我当下目标被激活的程度较低,因而对价值偏好并未产生如期的影响。为了弥补这些缺陷,研究四B从另一角度,以评价性条件反射的方法检验了自我差异的自动激活情况及对价值偏好的影响。结果显示,当自我当下目标与消极情绪同时激活时,这一自我知觉的激活中止,当前自我与当下自我目标之间形成的差异减弱乃至消失,个体的价值也不再发生相似的偏好;可能自我条件下也发生了类似的现象。总之,研究四的结果意味着,自我透视对价值偏好的影响在很大程度上是由于可能自我差异或当前自我差异自动激活的结果。研究五主要集中在情绪对自我透视和价值偏好关系的影响上。研究首先要求被试回想其生活中的快乐或不快乐的事,然后让被试描述对自己当前或未来创造力的知觉,以此检验情绪状态对价值偏好的影响。结果显示,积极情绪促使个体更加偏好实用主义价值。这意味着积极情绪对价值偏好并非起着预期的促进作用。研究六对上述几个研究进行了整合。研究首先设置一个智力测验的情境,在等待测验结果的过程中,以假定的另一个学校调查启动被试的自我知觉,并调查此时个体的价值偏好。测验结果出来后,给予被试虚假的消极反馈,这时候再次以另外的测验测量被试的价值偏好以及相应的自我动机。结果显示,当情境激活了实习工作对个体自我发展的长期益处时,个体更加偏爱那些与理想主义价值关联较大的词语,在收到消极反馈时,也倾向于相对客观地评价各类事件在自己身上发生的可能性;反之,当情境激活的是个体对当前自我的关注时,个体更加重视登山带来的乐趣,也即对主观体验更为关注,从而更加偏爱那些反映了实用主义价值的词语,在消极反馈的影响下,他们的自我评价也表现出超越现实的积极性。对自我透视、价值偏好和自我动机三者关系的探讨结果表明,价值偏好是影响自我透视与自我动机关系的部分中介。研究七对自我透视与自我调节之间的关系进行了探讨。研究七A从参与心理学实验的行为意图的角度探讨了自我透视对自我调节的影响。结果显示,当启动了个体远期的自我透视时,个体更加关注参与实验的高水平的益处从而表现出较强的行为参与意图;但当个体近期的自我透视启动时,个体更加关注参与实验的低水平的代价。研究七B对个体工作自我概念中的人际和成就领域的重要性进行了测量。结果发现,当启动了个体远期的自我透视时,在自我调节的两难问题上,个体更加重视与其核心价值一致的目标:也即当个体工作自我概念中人际自我更重要时,远期的自我透视使得个体更加重视人际问题的解决,而当个体的工作自我概念中成就自我更重要时,远期自我透视使得个体更加重视成就问题的解决。不过,当启动个体近期的自我透视时,个体在解决自我调节的两难问题时,更容易受情境因素的影响而忽略其核心价值。研究七C更精确地量化了个体自我差异激活的水平,并检验了这一激活对个体评价诱惑词语的影响。结果显示,当激活可能自我差异时,个体对诱惑词语的评价积极性更低,也即在这种条件下,个体能更好地自我控制,有效地进行自我调节。论文最后指出了本研究的主要结论以及研究意义,并指出了该领域今后的研究方向和进一步解决的问题。更多还原

【Abstract】 Self-regulation is a highly adaptive capacity that facilitates success in myriad domains of life. The capacity, however, is far less than what many would regard as ideal, and self-regulation failures are central to the majority of personal and social problems that plague citizens in modern societies. A literature review on self-regulation reveals that successful self-regulation requires one to make decisions and to act in accordance with long-term rather than short-term outcomes.To explore the dynamic mechanism of efficient self-regulation, the present research extended construal level theory (Liberman, Sagristano, & Trope, 2002; Liberman & Trope, 1998; Trope & Liberman, 2003) to self-concept. Construal level theory was put forward on the basis of time discounting. It suggests that people form more abstract representations, or higher-level construal, of psychologically distal objects than psychologically proximal objects. Based on the theory, the present research posits that people also use higher-level representation to construe distant future self-concept. That is, when future self-concept is activated, because possible self and current self are co-activated in one’s working self-concept, the mental representation is more central to the definition of one’s self, which would trigger self-improvement motivation. In the same way, when current self is primed, the mental representation is more concrete and contextual that is incidental to one’s true self. Because of the arousal of current self, the current goal is activated at the same time in one’s working self-concept especially in negative feedback context, which would trigger self-enhancement motivation.Building on these assumptions, we further propose that, the above effect should be mediated by value orientation. That is, distal rather than proximal self-perspective enhances the preference for idealistic over pragmatic value. The principle has important implications for self-regulation: distal self-perspective benefit self-regulation by enhancing behavioral intention, value-behavior correspondence and resistance of temptation. A series of 7 studies was conducted to test these assumptions.Study 1 explored the relationship between self-perspective and self-motivation. In study 1 A, participants first completed a creativity test to prime self-perspective, were then given negative feedback about the test. After that, Stroop task was employed to estimate the level of self-motivation. Results showed that, when distal self-perspective was primed, participants reacted to the words of self-improvement slower than the control group or the proximal group. For the proximal group, when they were told that the creativity test was authoritative, they then showed longer reactive time for the words of self-enhancement than the control group. But it wasn’t the case for the new test manipulation condition. Analysis indicated that when the possible self was activated, people focused on the information that can facilitate their self-development. Maybe it’s because of this, they were glad to accept all kinds of feedback, even if the feedback would threat their self-esteem. But when current self was activated in one’s working self-concept, they chose to escape from negative feedback in order to maintain their positive self-regard.Study 1B manipulated the self-concept of freshmen and seniors with a piece of news for a superstar student. By this mean, we examined the impact of the positive role on the freshmen and seniors. Statistical analysis showed that the freshmen evaluated the superstar more positive than the seniors, but evaluated themselves less positive than seniors. The results indicated that the freshmen were more prone to see the superstar as future possible self than the seniors, who focused more on the differences between the superstar and themselves, which in turn triggered self-improvement. Whereas the seniors would see the superstar as current goal in order to protect their self-concept, they were more likely to show self-enhancement bias.Study 2 to study 6 addressed the mechanism of how self-perspective induced different self-motivation. Study 2 explored the relationship between self-concept and value preference. Study 2A asked participants to describe their current self or their possible self 5 years later, then presented them a choice context which involved a decision between two conflicting classes, with one class emphasized idealistic value, and the other pragmatic value. Results showed that, when current self was activated, people preferred the pragmatic class. Employed the same procedure, study 2B replicated the results of study 2A, and extended the temporal distance to 3 intervals (current, 1 month later, 5 years later) and the percept to others. It implied that temporal distance didn’t bear a roughly a linear relationship with value orientation. Besides, the influence of temporal distance on value orientation was only for self, not others.Study 3A primed participants with overall possible self-difference by asking them to describe current self and possible self at the same time. Results showed that greater self-difference interrelate with greater preference for idealistic class. Study 3C set 4 conditions to induce possible self-difference or current self-difference: asked participants (1) and (2), to describe their future self-concepts using words like optimism/ pessimism, extroversion/ introversion and social/antisocial, and evaluate the difference between the possible self and their current self; (3) to describe their current self with words as optimism/ pessimism, extroversion/ introversion and social/antisocial, and write down their thoughts if their best friends don’t agree with what they describe; (4) to describe their current self only, no other instruments. Results showed when expected possible self were activated, people preferred idealistic value, but it wasn’t the case for feared possible self. When current self was primed, people preferred pragmatic value whether or not current goal was primed.Study 4 examined the assumption of automatic self-difference. After described the possible self or current self, study 4A then asked participants to list the other thoughts that appeared in their mind at the same time. Analysis indicated that once possible self was primed, current self was co-activated immediately. But current self-difference didn’t show the same principle; perhaps the exception can be attributed to the deficit of self-reported method in this study. Employed evaluative conditioning techniques, study 4B aimed to explicate the relationship. Results showed that, when current goal and negative emotion were co-activated, the tension between current self and current goal decreased or even disappeared, which damped the value orientation. In all, the results implied that self-difference was the main mediator between self-perspective and value orientation.Study 5 focused on the role of emotion on value orientation. Participants were first asked to recall the happy or unhappy days in the past, and then were instructed to describe their current creativity or creativity potential to manipulate their percept of self-concept. Results showed that, happy people preferred pragmatic value than unhappy people.Building on a synthesis of the foregoing studies, study 6 investigated the relationship among self-perspective, value orientation and self-motivation. Participants were first instructed to complete an IQ test. While waiting for the outcome of the test, another experimenter entered and asked the students to take another survey by college administration. The survey involved two parts, one of which asked the subjects to indicate how likely they were to choose climbing Mount Everest or a trainee in a very famous company, and the other part was a choice context which stresses different value orientation. After completion of the survey, the first experimenter returned and gave the participants bogus negative feedback. Then they completed another value orientation form and self-motivation measures. Analysis showed that when people chose more likely to be a trainee, they were scored higher in value and motivation measures. The results indicated that value orientation was partly mediated the relationship between self-perspective and self-motivation.The above principle has implications for self-regulation. A series of three sub-studies in study 7 verified the assumption. Study 7A demonstrated that distal self-perspective drew participants’ attention shift to the benefits of psychological studies, which accordingly led to stronger behavioral intention to participate but only in studies that involve conflicts between costs and valued benefits. In study 7B, participants first completed the Psychological Distance Scaling Task, which provided an index of the cognitive organization of interpersonal and achievement self-referent content, and were then presented a hypothetical choice dilemma (helping friends or preparing for examination). Analysis implied that more central values induced by distal self-perspective influenced value-behavior correspondence than less central values. That is, when people valued interpersonal self more, they were more likely to choose to help friends rather than prepare for examination. It would reverse for people who valued achievement much more. The quantification analysis of self-differences was performed in Study 7C to verify the impact of self-activation on evaluation for the temptation words. It revealed that people rated the temptation words less positively when primed with possible self-difference than those primed with current self-difference. In all, distal self-perspective would benefit self-regulation more than do proximal self-perspective.Implications of the results of the present research were discussed, and the need for future research was indicated.更多还原